majed-albahiti

From my latest Blog monkeymassacre.blogspot.com/&n…;

Sunday, March 20, 2011


Today was one of those days when I wish there was a sensory deprivation ON/OFF switch.


I was constantly bombarded with experiences that really affected my day. Or maybe it was the first one that really made me aware of the things I usually ignore.


I arrived to the shared office building early in the morning, with a positive "nice day" kind of feeling, a feeling that disappeared the second the elevator doors opened and I was slapped in the face with the unavoidable odor of the guy who came out. it felt like I was attacked by a radioactive invisible being that was strangling me.


When my brain function came back to remember that I can breathe again, I noticed that I made the stupid mistake of walking into the elevator and pressing the 2nd floor button where the office is (guess my brain's autopilot was on at that time). as I breathed in, my eyes started to tear, the invisible radioactive creature was left behind in the tight confinement of the elevator walls, a coffin that took too long to open again.


Although the trip was short, it seemed like a decade passed in the limbo I was stuck in.


The doors opened once more, and the receptionist was startled as he saw me jumping out of the elevator grasping for air, as if i was escaping from a falling elevator in the shaft or a demon that was haunting the place.
Yes he started laughing when he learned what I was running away from (funny how people are amused by others' painful experiences).


I was also laughing at the dilemma and I noticed that parts of my brain went through an emergency shut down...sadly the sensory receptors were still on and strangely augmented.


One of the guys at the office likes shaking hands every day, which is ok as long as you don't have "Sweaty Hands Syndrome"...and ya the feeling was multiplied by ten after the elevator incident and felt like the sweat was a tsunami of body fluids (ekh).


The went on, and a lunch break was something I was looking forward to for a change of my mental unbalance.


The restaurant bathroom was also a smell electrifying experience, even the soap left me with a regretful feeling of ickyness. What's wrong with regular soap? does it have to have a strong odor to clean more?!


I managed to mentally block that so I could simply enjoy my meal and go back to the office.


And as I left the restaurant, I had a visual treat of a couple of girls walking out as well, sadly that didn't last for long as my augmented sense of smell took-in too much of their perfume, or maybe they were the type that bathed in cologne thinking that it makes them more attractive.


The day was finally over, and as I drove my car back home with the windows opened to get some of that nice breeze we rarely have in this city, it seemed like every household and restaurant in town was cooking onions!


Today felt like a divine prank that was being done for a heavenly YouTube page and "life" was watching and laughing it's ass off.


I mean Common...do I need to start walking around like those OCD paranoids that carry with them antibacterial Detol soaps and sprays, or some ear and nose plugs maybe?


Who knows, one of these days I might bump into that "Essence Burner" guy, and ask him to take a shower before leaving his house...Either that or politely take out a gun, point it at him, and do us all a favor.


For god's sake, the French invented cologne, and deodorizers are available everywhere, not to mention soap...or do you think that the band "Soap Kills" actually chose that name because it is dangerous to get clean?! (By the way, their music is great)

I personally think that if you smell good, look good, talk good, and feel good, (especially for work) you can actually affect others around you and augment the sense of pleasantness to eventually have a good day.

"One day your life will flash before your eyes.
Make sure it's worth watching."

I can't remember who said that quote, but I do believe in it.

Rewinding my life a couple of years back and I can see how I had a couple of phobias making my experiences in life difficult;  Acrophobia- Fear of heights, Selachophobia- Fear of sharks, Aviophobia or Aviatophobia- Fear of flying, Necrophobia- Fear of death or dead things, and a couple more that I can't remember anymore.

And the funny thing is that I remember how I developed them.

Leaving your 4 - 6 year old kids to watch crazy ass horror and thriller movies is not a good idea if you want to keep them preoccupied without developing some mental disorders.
And boy oh boy was I preoccupied.

So a movie about great white sharks with an appetite for human junk food "JAWS" does make you think twice before jumping into water, and mine went overboard when I started getting paranoid while in swimming pools.

Another one was even based on a true story. The movie was called "ALIVE" which was depicting the story of the Andes flight disaster. Where in October 13, 1972, the Uruguayan rugby team's plane crashed in the middle of the Andes Mountains and the survivors had to eat the dead and went through hell till they finally were found.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uruguaya…;

Fear of flights, sharks, and death welcome to my childhood.

So ya, I guess my parents were having fun while their kids where building and expanding their future fears.

Sadism runs deep in the family I guess.

Thankfully, now I'm phobia free and it didn't involve any movies this time to mentally affect my being.

It was actually life and all of its sadistic irony. The people that come into our lives and maybe leave it, as well as the situations we go through that had a stronger effect.

Contemplating why I was so worried about sharks, planes, heights and other unearthly matters, I reached a point where I asked myself "what's the worst that can happen?"

And at that point, life became more tolerable.

What I mean is, break all fears to the basic elements and you would reach the same point, which is death in a lot of cases.

When a person is Arachnophobic, he thinks he fears spiders and other creepy-crawlies, but I think it is actually the bite that worries more, and by the bite I mean the poisonous death that follows.

Do you get tense walking into dark places and allies? Lygophobic? It's just fear of the unknown…not knowing what hides in the dark and what would happen to you if you go in, death?

Can't stand on the ledge of a high rise building? Get dizzy when you look down?

Think with me for a bit; is it the building, the surroundings, the wind? Or is simply worrying that you would fall to your death or get stabbed by some psycho killer?

Claustrophobic? Lose your breath when you're in tight spaces?  Do you fear the small boxed space or is fear of suffocating to death?

We all die sooner or later, so why waste time giving in to that built in biological self-preservation mechanism.

Just enjoy the moment, don't run into a building on fire of course, but think of the experience in all of its glory. Forget that some day we would eventually be stripped to our bones and maybe cause someone a phobia of his own.

Ask yourself "what's the worst that could happen? Death...so what?!"

Go jump out of plane, scream your lungs out and have someone film it with some kick ass music for a background (definitely have a parachute handy, you do want to enjoy other experiences, right?)
  
Shark getting a quick bite?
Hell, I might taste good goin in, but believe me… I will not go out that easily and surely without putting up a fight"

Majed Al Bahiti
Tuesday, 11 January 2011 2.30 p.m

I don't believe in Darwin's theory of evolution but I do believe in evolution in another way...the evolution of technology and all what it effects in life.

Recently I was asking my friends a question of how they are communicating with each other these days, and obviously chatting through a mobile device is on top of the list of frequency.

So the next question was what chat application or device are you favoring.

Some answered the BlackBerry messenger while others where like: "BlackBerry? that's an ugly phone...I like my I phone more, so it's the What'sapp application"

I personally don't like BlackBerry devices that much, but their messenger created a new trend, it's no longer a business phone.

And I do like Steve Jobs from the marketing Guru perspective, but I phones...not for me.

I've been "Brain Googled" which translates in my head to being brain washed by Google.
So, ya android based devices are my choice.

And why shouldn't it be?
An open platform that helps me link and sync easily and gives me the flexibility to play around with all of my files without thinking of how do i delete this or edit that...and sharing is caring...Apple, please stop being so stuck up.

we use to call or sms when we wanted to communicate through phones.

Even now with all the internet based technology that's been sprouting, and the new devices that show up day after day, communication is becoming sophisticatedly easier (oxymoron)

not to mention less expensive (if u have a good data package or a stable WiFi connection - also a hassle in this side of the world)

back to my question, I like the "safe and secure' concept of BB (although it's not anymore in this part of the world) but why limit me to a device? I mean why should I be stuck to the ugly BlackBerry mobile if I want to keep my BB pin (and I have to move my BB contacts if I change the device!)

What'sapp or any other open platform messengers are more flexible and to me that is convenient and less of a hassle.

Gtalk is also a good option but it still has no sharing of attachments like what'sapp does.

so in my books, open platform wins my vote and I hope it spreads like wildfire

although there's another question that comes up to my mind
why don't we call more often like we use to back in the day when we didn't have all this technology?

Our fingers are moving more than our lips...soon enough we won't need to open our mouths.
who knows maybe this is the sign that mental telepathy is on it's way.

Open platform brain implant messengers for communication!

Try not to think naughty thoughts, it might be a bit difficult to hide
Or maybe you should, it becomes more fun

Obsessions

An ugly word to some, which might be a sign of weakness, and has a shameful reputation associated with it. (Again, to some)

We get obsessed with all sorts of things… people, animals, places, furniture, memories and thoughts… You name it and chances are we have already been engulfed mentally in it. (Better known as the dreadful O.C.D)

Sure in some cases it is ok to have our occasional fixations but it is dangerous to stay there as it could be a sign of mental illnesses to come, maybe even leading to schizophrenia where you may lose your sense of reality and / or emotional responsiveness.

Well, what if we could turn that obsession from being negative to positive?

Rather than a devastating device of mental and physical torture, turn it into a healthy tool of productivity and build a stronger you.

What is being called these days “Productive Obsessing” is when you put yourself into a meaningful, and hopefully, a useful passion.

You might feel fatigue or frustration at times, but if you put your heart and head to it, you will be able to deal with those side effects that we all know very well, because you will be immersed in something meaningful and stimulating.

Guess what? This is how most of the world’s icons got to be part of history.

Einstein, Mozart, Da Vinci, Steven Jobs, Chef Ramzi… All had their Productive Obsessions, and although they went through a rollercoaster ride of motivational peaks and dips, they kept at it, and they did something they loved and inspired others, each with their own positive contribution to humanity.

I know it’s not easy (believe you me), but what the heck! Let’s give it a shot and obsess about something positive for a month or so. If you don’t like it get another one till you find the right obsession.

And I admit, I’ve got my dark obsessions, but I am also working on positive ones and I hope that one day I will reach that stage of a “Euphoria”.

Here's to our Obsessions,

Majed Bahiti

While some people try to capture the beauty of an image through a lens or ink it down on a piece of paper, they tend to look for the flawless side and hide the imperfections that are in front of them.

They work hard on cleaning up the tones, softening wrinkles, and patching the scars.

Well I say keep the scars, look for those imperfections, and embrace them!

They are the book that reads out what experiences and stories that need to be told.

Happiness, anger, joy, pain, confusion, loss, and hope…all are emotions that are wiped clean by our fear of showing what life has taught us and what time has marked on our being.

These imperfections are what make us unique and remind us of what we went through.

So when you grab your camera next time, or when you are sipping that cup of hot coffee trying to figure out the angle in which you are going to use that pen, please remember that a picture is worth a thousand words…so don't wipe those words and cut a story short.

And I just hope that we can work as hard as some artists do in showing the imperfections that hide deep in our souls…the scars that are not on the outside >>> but rather deep in our hearts!

Here's to our Scars and Imperfections,
Cheers

Majed